Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Conte Researching Oblique Injuries, But Not Yet Preventing Them

Saw this story off the Gannett News Service wire, in which Mark DeCotis quotes Dodgers trainer Stan Conte about the rash of oblique injuries not only for the Dodgers, but apparently (according to Conte), for all of baseball (no link):

The roster of professional baseball players who either suffered or are still sidelined by oblique or core muscle strains suffered in spring training or early in the regular season could fill two starting lineups.

And the obliques, a broad, flat band of muscle that connects to the pelvis and helps to rotate the hips, have claimed some high- profile players including Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Corey Hart and San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson.

According to research by Stan Conte, head trainer for the Los Angeles Dodgers who had three players affected by the injury this spring, 14 players have gone on the disabled list with core or oblique injuries this season.

"One theory I have is that players are transferring more quickly from the offseason to spring training games and to more competitive regular-season games, and the muscles aren't holding up to the increased strain and force the players are putting on them in competition," Conte told The New York Times.

Which led me to unearth this NYT article from last month, which also had the Conte picture so prominently featured above:

Why this is happening is not really clear, but happening it is. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ head trainer, Stan Conte, was so intrigued that he stayed up through the night last week going line by line through a list he has assembled of the roughly 7,000 players who have gone on the disabled list since 1991.

Look, I'm thrilled Conte is on the hunt for the oblique root cause, and looking all over MLB injuries for potential patterns. I'd be more thrilled if he could keep our guys off the DL (of which there are many).

photo: Axel Koester for The New York Times

7 comments:

Nostradamus said...

In related news, Conte is unable to confirm or deny the existence of Juan Uribe's oblique.

Steve Sax said...

there's also a wicked picture of a player with the oblique muscles overlaid on his body, in the NYT link. Yeech.

Josh S. said...

One of us better call in and talk to Frank at 3pm on 710 ESPN.

Loney Fan said...

I really hope they allow any question. If there isn't a single call with true anger behind the voice then we'll know they are pre-approving the calls.

NicJ said...

They said it's a 20 minute segment, 10 min interview 10 minute call in. So I wouldn't expect much.

Probably just going to hit the same bulletpoints he has been hitting in every interview.

I am interested in the petros and money interview at 430 because petros is vibrantly hammering him and I want to see if he will say it to his face.

Loney Fan said...

Where's the MIT: McCourt Interviews Thread?

Media Watch said...

BASEBALL'S DEAFENING SILENCE-Why Nobody Will Explain Giants Unprecedented Hurts http://buff.ly/1VeeBa8